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2 Sumner County bridges on TDOT’s watch list

Out of the 388 bridges in the county listed on the Tennessee Department of Transportation website, only two — Liberty Branch and Little Trammel Creek — are what the department calls structurally deficient.

2 Sumner County bridges on TDOT’s watch list

Little Trammel Creek bridge on Old Highway 31 East north of Westmoreland near the Kentucky state line is one of two bridges in the county that the Tennessee Department of Transportation has classified as structurally deficient.
(Photo:
Esan Swan / For Sumner County Publications
)

A few bridges in Sumner County will reach a milestone next year: century birthdays.

Out of the 388 bridges in the county listed on the Tennessee Department of Transportation website, only two — Liberty Branch and Little Trammel Creek — are what the department calls structurally deficient.

“Deficient does not mean bad,” said Heather Jensen, the regional community relations officer at TDOT, “it just means that there’s something that we watch for and something that denotes a bridge may need some repairs to make sure it can handle the appropriate traffic.”

Liberty Branch bridge on Highway 25 was built in 1954, and the Little Trammel Creek bridge, just a stone’s throw from the state line on Old Highway 31 East, was built in 1930.

Jensen said while the age of a bridge is noteworthy, traffic plays a bigger role in a bridge’s longevity. She said the amount of traffic and winter salting also impact its lifespan.

“We inspect all our bridges biannually,” she said. “So every two years, we are out there looking at bridges and seeing how things are going.”

In 2009, TDOT began a Better Bridges Program. In four years, the agency replaced or repaired 200 state-owned bridges, reducing the number of structurally deficient bridges on local and state systems to 5.9 percent.

There are no current TDOT projects for Sumner County bridges, Jensen said.

Judy Hardin, road superintendent for Sumner County, said the state maintains any road and subsequent bridges with a number, like State Route 109 or Highway 31E.

“We are constantly working on county bridges,” she said. “The state will send us a list of (bridges) that need immediate attention, and it could be anywhere from weather erosion, bridge rail needs repairs, or cracks.

“Our bridges are in good shape overall. We have some larger, older structures that I would like to begin to start replacing,” she said.

Hardin gave note to the bridge on Harsh Lane east of Gallatin that she said needs to be rebuilt because it’s too narrow for the curve and is a safety concern. She said it would be a considerable amount of money to replace the bridge, and right now the county does not have those types of funds.

“I would say we probably spend, with materials and the cost of labor, around $1 million on bridges (each year),” she said about the county bridges.

Hardin said bridges need to be maintained because of the cost to replace them. She said the county averages one bridge overhaul every three or four years.